The inventor owns and operates a small company which owns the patent rights to a Pop-top Can Re-sealer, U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,787. The can re-sealer disclosed in the above referenced patent was produced and sold for almost ten years, and is still being sold in reduced quantities in the United States and even more so, in foreign countries.
In the last few years, states have increasingly passed legislation prohibiting or limiting the use of the pop-top cans with removable opener tabs. In some states, the prolifieration of the little tabs became very offensive to environmentally conscious citizens. In many areas, metal detectors are virtually useless because they are in a constant state of being triggered due to the presence of pop-tops in the top few inches of the soil. It has been said that if present civilization destroys itself, future species will at least be able to learn a little about us through out pop-tops.
Although the passage of environmental legislation such as the prohibition of removable pop-tops is a thrill for environmentalists, it was less than a thrill to the instant inventor, inasmuch as the improvement in his aesthetic life due to the imperceptible decrease in pop-top tab litter did not make up for the bottom dropping out of the re-sealer business. The old re-sealers just would not work on the new cans because the tab which remained with the can interfered with the sealing action of the rubber foot of the re-sealer.